Cafe Catalina

Oh yeah! I knew it! Dami ko nang kino-convince na mas maganda ang DS — maski nga estudyante ko, gusto kong bumili sila ng DS para kuno mapractice nila ang Japanese writing nila, hehe (kuno)…pero alam mo naman ang mga Pinoy — kaya nga hit ang PSP dito, kasi all-in-one gadget. Ika nga ni Dards, kulang na lang cellphone. Just wanted to post this article, to drive home the point:

How Sony lost the handheld war

It never ceases to amaze me just how quickly things can turn around. Back when Sony confirmed that it was looking to introduce a portable version of its PlayStation console, speculation was rife that Nintendo was on the verge of following Sega and becoming exclusively a software producer. After all, the PlayStation 2 and Xbox had soundly beaten the GameCube, and the one area where Nintendo had ruled the roost for the decade before – the handheld segment – was about to get serious competition from arguably the most potent brand in gaming at the time: the PlayStation.

And yet the battle between what would become the Sony PSP and Nintendo’s DS handheld machine has epitomised much of what’s happened in the console marketplace since.

At the launch of the PSP, things were looking promising for Sony. Many were bowled over by the technical marvel that they held in their hands, and the PSP got an enthusiastic response from reviewers and early adopters. The sheer amount of technological power it had managed to pack in was extraordinary at the time, and while the controls weren’t quite as comfortable as we were used to, the machine nonetheless impressed. Never mind that there weren’t any particularly compelling games at the point of launch: surely they’d be following a little further down the line.

When the machine launched in Japan back in December 2004, over 200,000 were shifted on day one. Sony, it seemed, had struck gold again. And while the subsequently stilted worldwide roll-out did the firm no favours (leaving some territories waiting nearly a year for the machine as a result of stock problems), the early signs were good for Sony, especially when 185,000 machines were sold in the UK on its first day, easily eclipsing the sales Nintendo had enjoyed for the DS on its day of release.

But the release of the DS would be the moment when Nintendo’s strategy – which can be traced back to the GameBoy and GameCube – of compromising technological specs in favour of lower cost machines with more interesting games would pay major dividends, and turn the console war on its head.

The DS launched in America ahead of Japan, in November of 2004, with the European roll-out following in March. It had two tricks up its sleeve that would prove crucial in the years ahead. Firstly, it had two screens. But secondly, and more importantly, it could be interacted with via a stylus thanks to one of the displays being a touchscreen. In many ways, Sony never saw it coming.

For despite a slower start for Nintendo’s machine, it simply had far more software ammunition up its sleeve. Sony’s PSP was the more expensive machine, which gave Nintendo an advantage, but it was also lacking in distinctive, interesting titles for it. There was a fair choice, to be fair, but there was a distinct air of shovelware, with games shoehorned across from the bigger PlayStations without really being optimised effectively for the PSP. Wipeout Pure worked, as did Ridge Racer, but a great number of releases, particularly in its first year, underwhelmed. In fact, only Lumines really felt like a game that was specifically put together with a handheld in mind.

Switch to the DS, and it was a very different story. 2005 alone saw Mario Kart DS, Castlevania, the wonderful Advance Wars and Animal Crossing appear, and it seemed that Nintendo always had another hit around the corner. Things ratcheted up further with the launch of Nintendogs, the DS virtual pet craze that sent console sales soaring.

But there was more around the corner. Metal Gear Solid and Tekken would make it onto the PSP in 2006, but by then, Nintendo was well into the world of Brain Training. To call Brain Training a phenomenon would demonstrate a real penchant for understatement: with savvy marketing that would accentuate the natural interface, and targeting a demographic well above the teens, the game sold by the truckload. More Brain Training, Big Brain Academy, Sight Training and more have followed, and Nintendo has struggled to keep up with supply for its hardware ever since as a result.

And then there’s the PSP. Word surrounding the PSP was of dissatisfaction, especially so when the UMD movie format proved to be a flop. UMDs, in the grand masterplan, would prove to be a way to watch your favourite films on the move by buying them again. The only problem was that the retail price was the same as that of a DVD, and you didn’t get the extras either. In spite of a couple of early sales successes, UMD support was quietly withdrawn by the majority of movie studios in the months that followed.

The games, too, weren’t delivering as expected, although – in spite of what some may tell you – there were several solid titles in there. Final Fantasy Tactics, Daxtor, LocoRoco and Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters all are well worth picking up, and sales of the machine were ticking along as a result. The problem was that Sony was being soundly beaten, simply by being outthought by a rival that many assumed were in for a sound beating.

To call the PSP a failure would be incorrect, of course. Over 30m have been sold, and while many retailers were talking about lack of Nintendo stock in the last year or so, the PSP has been quietly shifting. This year too has seen arguably its best game, God Of War, as well as the delightful Patapon. Yet Nintendo’s DS has now outsold the PSP by well over two to one, and its software library continues to be the more interesting. Even something like Cooking Mama 2, which may not be a terrific game, is ideally suited to handhelds, and simply couldn’t work on the PSP due to the conventional interface that Sony’s machine has to work with.

Sony’s major problem now, and it’s unlikely to be a resolvable one, is that third party developers now know that the installed userbase for the DS is far in excess of the PSP’s, and Nintendo is, bluntly, where the money is. The latest major blow for the PSP, while unlikely to be a fatal one, is undoubtedly a major hit. And that’s that developer Ready At Dawn, who had just finished God Of War: Chains Of Olympus (and had produced Daxter, the machine’s biggest hit to date), would no longer be making games for the PSP. As the team widely renowned for having made the best of the PSP, this is a real hammer blow for Sony.

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